


The Me, I Know

by Abbyromana



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25191001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbyromana/pseuds/Abbyromana
Summary: Jenny awakens to find herself with no memory of her past and held against her will by some miltary scientists, but the real shock is yet to come. What dangers still lurk unseen for 'the girl with two faces?'
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Jenny (Doctor Who: The Doctor's Daughter), The Doctor & Jenny (Doctor Who: The Doctor's Daughter)
Kudos: 5





	1. Eyes Opened Wide

**Author's Note:**

> I am in the process of deleting my LJ account, so I'm moving my works here. Please forgive me any roughness or incompleteness. Thank you.

Jenny wasn’t sure what really woke her up. There was a faint and repetitive beeping sound followed by a low-pitched buzzing noise. It almost seemed to echo the steady thumping of her hearts in her chest. At the same time, she kept seeing the faint flickering of neon colours behind her eyelids. They rotated in a circular pattern, sporadically overlapping as she started to keep track of them. Still, there was also a subtle breeze that kept sweeping over her body as if someone was repeatedly pulling a cool sheet over her, starting from her bare feet and up over her forehead.

She wondered for a moment if she was dead and someone was placing a burial veil over her. But, was she dead? She didn’t feel dead, despite the fact that she had a sneaking suspicion she should be.

In back of her mind, there flickered a memory of an enormous amount of concentrated energy, almost like a supercharged lightning bolt, striking her in the centre of her chest. Still, she couldn’t remember where this memory came from or why lightning would strike her? Also, everything before that memory seemed shrouded in a dark veil within her mind. Furrowing her brow, she tried to force her mind to uncover them, but the memories kept sinking deeper into the recesses of her mind. It was as if before the lightning had struck her, she hadn’t existed, at least as far as her mind was concerned. That, of course, was ridiculous.

_I suppose it's quite possible that the lightning damaged some part of my brain… but why is so much of my memory missing? And why despite not remembering my life before, can I still remember my name, and… vaguely, a man of brown?_

In her mind’s eye, she saw his slender, long coated form at a distance, grinning at her with open-arms. There was a mixture of over-whelming joy and madness about the smile both on his lips and in his eyes. When his warm voice called her name, Jenny felt the urge to both laugh with joy and cry with a deep seeded sorrow. She couldn’t remember the man of brown’s name but knew he was someone of great importance to her, someone she missed very dearly.

Drawing in a shaky breath, she tried to calm her erratic hearts’ palpitations that the man of brown caused. She reached her senses outside of her body, feeling that below her aching neck and head was a lumpy pillow. Intrigued by this finding, she blinked: one… two… three…

A brightly lit white room gradually swam into view. Towering shadows stretched across the ceiling, looking almost like skyscrapers. They were even dotted with occasional coloured lights here and there. When she tilted her head back, she could only just see the tip of one of the metal structures creating the towering shadows; it looked to be some sort of machine. A series of long windy metal cords and plastic tubes connected her to it. They curled around one another like some sort of strange tubular artistic sculpture of metal and plastic. Jenny could only guess that they analyzed and maintained her physically. Thus, she started to think she was in some sort of medical centre. For if she was in an accident and wasn’t dead, then that seemed to be next most likely place she’d end up.

Momentarily, she accepted that answer, and instead, focused on relieving the pain in her neck and body. She tilted her head one way, feeling the muscles in her neck tense instead of relax due to the recent movement. They felt new, as if they were stretching and contracting for the first time. Even as she flexed her hands and fingers at her sides, she noticed an uncomfortable stiffness.

“Oh,” she groaned, coughing as the dryness of her throat became evident to her. Still, she started to push herself up, but immediately, thick leather straps wrapped around her arms stopped her. “What the…? What’s going on?!”

She tugged at them with all her might, feeling their resistant hold. Tilting her head forward to get a better view of them, she saw that there were straps all over her body holding her to the bed. The thoughts of this being a hospital turned darker. New thoughts of an experimental laboratory where she was the latest lab rat flashed through her head. That thought alone terrified her.

Just then, somewhere on the other side of the room, she heard the sliding sound of a mechanized door opening. Gazing quickly in that direction, Jenny caught sight of four people dressed in white uniforms that included protective, clear faceplate in the hood. The outfit obscured most of their physical appearance, but Jenny didn’t need to see all of them to know they were scientists. The way they spoke and barely acknowledged her presence told her that much.

The one leading the group into the room looked to be a tall man with a very slender build and thick-rimmed glasses visible in the protective, clear faceplate. He spoke authoritatively to the group, but he didn’t sound much like any leader Jenny ever recalled, particularly with how he stumbled with his words at times.

The rest of the group kept giving her the occasional long stare as the listened to him and asked questions. Two of the group looked much younger than the leader of the group. Their bright, wide-eyed stares at her and their steady line of questions to the leader of the group told Jenny that much about them. However, the one in back was different from the rest.

He looked older, a bit of gray hair was visible at the top of the clear faceplate area of the hood. When he glanced in her direction, it was long and severe. Jenny could see a seething hatred directed towards her. He didn’t see her as some lab rat but an adversary. It was a look Jenny was sure another older man in charge had given her before. For a moment, Jenny wondered if this man and the one she remembered were the same. They both always looked at her with cold and calculated stares. They both held themselves with an air of superiority and stiffness. She could see either of them shooting her without a second thought. The only difference between the two men was that this man was much quieter and reserved than the man in her memories.

That was also the difference between this man and Jenny. She wasn’t going to stay quiet, especially since they’d restrained her against an obvious examining table. “Hey! Excuse me!” she called before feeling her all ready dry throat restricted again. She coughed a few times, but the group of four ignored her outburst for the most part.

“See, Gen. Lars. She’s already regained complete control over her motor skills,” leader of the group said excitedly, looking directly at the older man at the back. “When have you ever seen a human do that after the damage she maintained in the Web!”

“What... do you mean... gained back?” Jenny dared to ask, despite her voice continually cracking every few words.

“Yes, interesting” the Gen. Lars replied, not paying a single notice of her question, “but motor skills weren’t the point of your report, Dr. Sampors.”

“Yes, of course,” Dr. Sampors replied, sounding nervous. “I think we can see the regenerative genetics best from the readings gathered from the CAT scans and radial-nanoscope scans.”

“Subject? Who? Me?” Jenny said questioningly in a lower voice that didn’t hurt it as much. She watched them casually walk towards her, and then right passed. The first three, including Dr. Sampors passed without meeting her gaze, but Gen. Lars gave her a very long, cold stare again. “What are you looking at, general?”

He briefly stopped and cocked his head to the side. “Interesting,” he said simply. He held her gaze as if daring her to blink, but when she didn't give him that satisfaction, he snapped away from her.

Jenny’s brow furrowed as she heard a quick series of chirping and beeping noises somewhere over her head. Then almost in unison, the group made ‘oh” and ‘ohm’ noises followed by a female voice saying:

“Well, that’s interesting!”

Another, this time male, declared angrily, “But it can’t be possible!”

“I concur with Dr. Meadows,” Gen. Lars said. “These sorts of readings must be wrong. What they are suggesting just isn’t possible; even I know that from basic biology, Dr. Sampors.”

“I know one might think that, Gen. Lars,” Dr. Sampors explained, “but if we consider the fact that the subject isn’t human…”

“Not human?” Jenny murmured to herself. She considered his comment. There was a flicker of a memory, of someone else saying that to her. Then suddenly it felt so obvious to Jenny. She wasn’t human, at least not like these people. “Of course, I’m not human,” Jenny spoke up, straining her neck to see the group. “Oi! What are you looking at? What are you doing?”

“See!” Dr Sampors’ voice exclaimed. “So our knowledge of biology, biochemistry, and genetics can't completely define her biological makeup. She’s… well, she’s something completely new! An alien life form unlike anything human kind has yet encountered, I’d wager.”

“And yet, she looks human enough,” Dr. Meadows contradicted. “How do we know she’s not just some evolutionary off shoot from when humans first started crossbreeding with other alien life. I mean it isn’t like we haven’t seen two hearts before in a humanoid.”

“Yes, but…” Dr. Sampors stated, which a series of chirps and beeps followed, “If you look here on the internal scans, you’ll see that much of her circulatory and nervous system also differs from us, and on the deepest genetic level, her DNA is…”

“Just a second... that’s triple!” stated the younger, female voice, interrupting Dr. Sampors. “At least triple. Still, there appears to be a whole another dimension to it, one just outside the range of the scope.”

“Wait, are we saying genes whose strands that reach into a fourth dimension,” Dr. Meadows exclaimed. “That’s ridiculous!”

“Apparently not,” Gen. Lars stated, sounding dead serious. “If what we are seeing here is true, she is quite remarkable. A new weapon perhaps?”

Jenny sighed in frustration. “If you think that’s impressive, just let me out of these binds, and I’ll show you impressive!” she yelled, wearing a smirk on her face.

Gen. Lars grumbled, “Dr. Sampors, would you be so good to silence your specimen, while we deliberate on how to proceed.”

“Oi, what does that mean?” Jenny asked angrily, making pointless tugs against the leather straps restraining her.

“Yes, Gen. Lars,” Dr. Sampors replied. There was that chirping and beeping sound again, and a second later, Jenny felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck. It felt as if very sharp needles punctured the skin at two point at the back of her neck.

Jenny cried out, while warmth quickly spread from the points of pain. “What did you do?” she said questioningly. Her whole body was quickly growing warmer and lethargic. A moment later, she felt very tired. Her eyelids started to grow very, very heavy. She did not want to sleep, but quickly found it hard to resist her body’s demands.

As the white room grew dark and the voices of the group faded, Jenny swore she could just make out Dr. Sampors saying something that left her feeling uneasy. “This subject might hold the key to curing degenerative diseases, even at the molecular level… or better yet, she could be the key to immortality!”

oOo

Darkened hallways encompassed her every hurried step. Somewhere behind her, the sound of gunfire echoed like ravenous wolves out on a hunt. She was afraid, despite the heavy black gun gripped tightly in her slender arms. While it provided no comfort to her, the presence of the man of brown did.

He was beside her, hunched over a device that controlled a dangerous hallway of red light. He was trying to find a safe way through for them to escape the ensuing wolves, thirsting for blood and something else. The man of brown was frantic but determined as he spoke to another person somewhere behind Jenny. Jenny could not turn around to see who it was, but she felt sure that, much like the man of brown, there was nothing to fear from this person. The man of brown sounded muffled, but Jenny could hear the urgency in his voice. He needed more time to save them all. They needed a distraction.

_I must do something... before its too late!_

oOo

Jenny awoke with a gasp, snapping upright to a seated position upon a raised bed. Immediately, a warmly lit stone room flooded her sight. The room was considerably smaller than the examination room she last remembered. This one had no machines in it, but it had the single bunk bed, which she sat on, attached to the wall across from a metal door and a small wooden table with two matching, wooden chairs situated against another wall.

Rising slowly from the bed, Jenny took note of the light sources. One was the small gap under the metal door. It was just big enough, Jenny imagined, for a tray of food to fit through it. The other light source was a series of long lighting rods across the high ceiling.

“How quaint,” Jenny scoffed, before walking up to the door. Her slender hands skimmed over the door, searching for a handle but she saw none. Then she started to examine where the door edge met the stone wall. A quick examination showed that it was a sliding door just like the one in the laboratory. That meant without some way to bypass the lock, she couldn’t open it. Letting her fingertips linger on the door a moment longer, she felt how much cooler it was compared to the warmed room.

“Obviously, they don’t want me to freeze to death,” she stated, knocking on the door, “and it appears fairly solid. Thick, metal door to keep me locked in. Great! Just great!”

Jenny grumbled under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the heavy metal door. She was frustrated and still very confused. They were keeping her here against her will as some scientists’ sick idea of a groundbreaking scientific finding, just because of something in her blood, which she didn’t even understand. If Jenny did, she would have been more than happy to explain it to them, if they’d just let her go afterwards.

Of course, that brought up the question about how she got here in the first place, wherever here was. She had to admit she didn’t even know the planet she was on; only that it wasn’t her home world. There was no way if this was her home that they’d be doing this to her or just be discovering something unique about her now. Something felt off, and Jenny feared it might be her.

_I’ve forgotten many things... perhaps more than I even realise. All because of some injury I received, and those memories were important. Let’s face it, Jenny; I’ve forgotten most of my life before waking up here, but why? What happened to me?_

Shutting her eyes, she focused herself on remembering anything about herself. “Where’s home? I have to remember that. Where did I come from?”

oOo

Brief flashes of the man of brown flickered behind her eyelids. At first, a deadly red glow stood between them. Then her world momentarily started rotating, flashing in and out with each spin. In each flash, she found herself being drawn closer and closer to him, until with an uneasy steadiness the spinning stopped. She saw only his wide, dark brown eyes smiling directly into her eyes. Then in a clear and jubilant voice, he exclaimed:

“Not impossible, just a little bit unlikely!”

oOo

Jenny’s eyes flew open. She gasped loudly, placing a hand against her head. She had dozed off again, having yet another vision of the man of brown. Both of her hands shifted to her shivering shoulders. She felt a cold sweat covering every inch of her. Her hearts had also sped up due to the man of brown. She tried to calm them again.

“What was that? Some sort of answer?” Jenny asked herself, stepping away from the metal door and towards the bunk bed. As she slowly took a seat on the bed, she let her mind wonder. That was the third time she’d had a vision of the man of brown. Now, more than ever, she was certain he represented something important to her.

Her hearts had barely returned to their normal rhythms when she heard a noise at the door. A series of distinct chirps followed by a steady beeping noise, and then the door slid open to reveal Dr. Sampors with an overly huge and false smile.

“Good morning, my dear. Did we sleep well?” he greeted, stepping into her room followed closely by a large muscular man in a white uniform similar to the one Dr. Sampors was wearing, except on this muscular man it looked too tight. Even before Jenny could rise from the bed, the large muscular man was at her side, hauling her to her feet and restraining her arms behind her back.

“Oi! What are you doing?!” Jenny yelled, snapping her glare in Dr. Sampors’ direction. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Merely a pre-caution, my dear,” Dr. Sampors replied, before he turned around to the door. He made a quick gesture, beckoning someone from the outside. “You can bring it in now!” He stepped aside, revealing a towering piece of machinery on a pushcart. Two other men dressed in white pushed the towering machine into the room, and then Dr. Sampors turned towards Jenny. He continued to grin at her. He gestured towards the chair on the far side of the small table. “Will you please take a seat... Jenny, is it?”

Jenny didn’t have a chance to reply as the muscular man behind her forced her forward and into the wooden chair. She only partially resisted, knowing she could do little to stop ‘Muscles’ behind her. “Yeah, sure, I’d love to,” she said through gritted teeth. Then she turned her head as far as she could in the direction of Muscles behind her. “Thanks a bunch!”

She swore she could hear Muscles sarcastically chuckle in to her left ear as he held her in the chair. “You’re funny, Girlie.”

“Thanks!” Jenny spat back at him with a forced smile.

The two other white uniformed men placed the towering machine beside the small table. Dr. Sampors took the seat across from Jenny, watching her intently as his men worked on the machine, connecting her to it. “I thought we’d start out simple, a few questions to clear up some unknowns before we start.”

“Start what?” Jenny said pointedly, snapping her heated gaze in Dr. Sampors direction.

“That’s all of them, Dr. Sampors,” one of the white uniformed men interrupted as he and his partner turned to the doctor.

“Good,” Dr. Sampors replied. “You may go.” His gaze narrowed on Jenny but flickered briefly to the man behind her. “I’m sure Thaen and I can handle her for the next hour. Isn’t that right, Thaen?”

In a low, gravelly voice, Muscles replied, “Yes, Doc.” Then he released Jenny’s sore arms but remained steadfast behind her.

While the two others left, Jenny rubbed her wrists in a play of discomfort, carefully taking note of the sticky sensors placed at different points on her body. She didn’t like the feel of them, particular the few that appeared to partially be embedded under her skin. Her narrowed gaze shifted from them to Dr. Sampors. He produced a medium-sized paper notebook from the side of the towering machine. Flipping it open several paged in, he started to write notes in it with a silver pen.

“So what precisely do you want to talk about, doctor?” she asked sarcastically, fixing him with an irritated glare.  
  
_To be continued..._


	2. Face Value Revelations

“Let’s start with your name?” he said overly casually.

“I’m called Jenny,” she answered cheerfully, not letting her gaze waver from him.

“Jenny what?” Dr. Sampors questioned, silver pen at the ready.

Jenny smirked, leaning forward a bit. “Just Jenny.”

Dr. Sampors raised an eyebrow in her direction. She met his gaze and held it. For a moment, it was a battle of glares, but all too soon, the doctor’s gaze faltered. “Very well,” he said, sounding dissatisfied but accepting of her answer for the moment. His gaze dropped to his notebook. He wrote something and then asked, “What is your species then?”

Jenny replied with a shrug, leaning back with her arms crossed over her chest. She felt the back of her head bump into Muscles behind her, so she gave him a quick upward glance, noticing he glared back down at her. Wrinkling her nose, she beamed a teasing smile at him.

“Jenny,” Dr. Sampors said forcefully, “answer the question.”

Her gaze snapped back towards the doctor still grinning. “I did,” she explained, “I have no clue what I am. I know I’m not human, but nothing besides that.”

“That is ridiculous!” Dr. Sampors stated, resting his elbows on the table. There was a stern expression on his face. “How can someone not know what they are?”

Jenny frowned, giving a thoughtful look for a few seconds, and then just shrugged again. “Probably the same way someone can’t remember how they got to this place.”

Sighing, he shook his head. “Very well,” Dr. Sampors stated, sound dissatisfied. “You were brought to the facility after the Climate Control Web was destroyed.”

That caught Jenny’s attention. An image flickered in her mind. She saw a vast orbital network of satellites and platforms interconnected, stretching far above her and across a starry sky. It was lit up like the red hall from her dream with the man of brown.

“There was a problem with it, wasn’t there?” she said absentmindedly as a question.

“Yes,” Dr. Sampors confirmed offhandedly, scribbling in his notebook. “Someone sabotaged it. You perhaps?”

Jenny snapped her full attention to him. Her mouth hung open, and her brow furrowed. “What? No!” she exclaimed, starting to rise from her seat, but Muscles shoved her back down. “I wouldn’t do that! I know I wouldn’t!”

“And what precisely would you do, Jenny?” Dr. Sampors questioned, cocking his head to the side with his eyes still narrowed. “What would you do if you snuck into a vital climate controller of an entire planet, a world with millions at your mercy?”

“I wouldn’t do anything to it," she told him, "unless there was a good reason for me to... to do something.” 

“And was there a good reason why you or those who hired you to destroy the most highly advanced piece of technology on this planet?” he questioned in a tight voice. "Putting millions of lives at risk, causing untold damage to our world."

“I didn’t!” Jenny stated.

“Come now, Jenny. There’s no need to lie,” he contradicted her statement with a sneer on her face.

“No, I’m not!” she yelled. “I have... never... been...” She wanted to tell him off, to say she'd never been to this Climate Control Web, but then there was a faint flicker of a memory in her mind.

Jenny was running down a long and dimly lit hallway with a large blaster in her hands. Glancing briefly to one side, she saw an expansive window. Outside, the interconnected web of countless platforms and satellites was visible. Beyond that and far below was a vast continent brimming with a highly advanced civilization.

“Recalling now, Jenny,” Dr. Sampors sneered, interrupting her memory. Jenny’s gazed snapped back to him. She wanted to lie and say ‘no,’ but she couldn’t.

“Well, even if I was there... at some point... that doesn’t mean I destroyed it,” she said defensively.

Dr. Sampors scoffed, rolling his eyes. He was shaking his head as he scribbled more into his notebook. “If you aren’t going to be helpful, then I suppose I might as well hand you over to Gen. Lars and his Global Security boys. They’d love to get their hands on you, make an example of you for your crimes to our world, for all the destruction you've caused.”

He paused in speaking, and slowly, shifted his gaze in her direction. Jenny guessed that from his words and less than subtle suspenseful pause, he was goading her to react. The only problem was she didn’t know how she should or shouldn’t react to his comment. The threat of Dr. Sampors handing her over to this Global Security meant little to nothing to Jenny. She couldn’t remember ever meeting any of them, but she had met General Lars. Considering the cold and calculating glares he’d given her in the laboratory, she guessed being at his and his men’s mercy would be a bad thing. She knew a soldier when she saw one, which momentarily surprised her.

_How do I know a soldier when I see one? Was I once a soldier? If I was, when was I a soldier? I wonder if I was a good soldier or..._

The sharp voice of Dr. Sampors pulled her out of her musings “I, on the other hand, don’t think you should be wasted. I think you can teach us much or supply us with much needed information,” he said overly friendly, “If you work with me, I can keep you safe, Jenny. Perhaps reduce the charges you face. Don’t you want to be safe?”

“Depends on your definition of safe,” Jenny told him scornfully, frowning at him, and once again, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t think being dissected is my kind of safe.”

Dr. Sampors chuckled falsely. “We aren’t as primitive as that, at least not unless we are forced to find our answers that way. Yet, I think you are a smart girl, Jenny. You know like me that there are better, more pleasant methods, such as talking, to get information.”

"Sure,” Jenny said grumpily, flashing him a quite fake smile. “Then let’s talk.”

“Good!” Dr. Sampors said, beaming a huge grin back at her. “So tell me how you managed your shape-shifting. Is it voluntary or involuntary? Knowing that should aid me in proving your worth alive, even to the General.”

“Shape-shifting? What shape-shifting?” Jenny inquired seriously with a raised eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“The fact you changed your appearance from the time you arrived on our planet and snuck aboard the Web to when Global Security found you unconsciousness in the Web’s central control hub,” he stated, scribbling in his notebook.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, feeling that Dr. Sampors was forcefully leading her thinking. “I haven’t changed my appearance.” She pointed at her face and tugged on her long hair. “I have always looked like this.”

“Jenny, now let’s not lie,” Sampors said, sounding unconvinced. His gaze only briefly flickered in her direction before returning to the notebook. He was still writing in it.

“I’m not lying!” Jenny said angrily and rather loudly, perhaps a bit too loudly, because a moment later, Muscles pressed down on her shoulders to keep her in her seat.

“Do you think I was lying, Jenny?” Dr. Sampors asked threateningly. “If you refuse to be helpful, much worse things can happen to you, so don’t you dare!”

“You better not lie to the doc, Girlie,” Muscles added. “Everyone in the Lab has seen the tapes. You just have to look outside to see the results of what you've done.”

“Yes. Very true, Thaen. Thank you,” Dr. Sampors said.

“I don’t care what either you or Muscles says! I know what I look like. And I’m sure I’ve always looked like this!” she declared, using both of her hands to point once more at her face.

Dr. Sampors didn’t argue with her this time, but instead, cocked his head to the side. He looked at her with a narrowed stare for a few moments. “You really believe that, don’t you, Jenny?”

“Yes!” Jenny exclaimed, blowing out a hurried breath. She couldn’t understand why it was so hard for them to believe her words.

“Hmmm,” Dr. Sampors said, before asking as he moved towards the towering machine. “And what do you think you look like, Jenny?”

“I have long hair,” Jenny started to explain. “I have two eyes, one nose and one mouth. Two arms being held down by Muscles behind me, each with five fingers and...”

As Dr. Sampors opened a compartment on the towering device, he said roughly, “Yes, yes, but be more specific. What colour hair? What colour eyes? How tall? Those sorts of details.” He stepped back around the machine, now holding a flat, rectangular object against himself.

Jenny watched nervously as Dr. Sampors retook his seat, placing the object flat on the table. The object didn’t bother her and neither did his actions leave her feeling uneasy. It was his questions that made a cold shudder roll over her body. She couldn’t answer any of them.

Despite her best efforts to recall the colour of her hair or eyes, she couldn’t remember. A few possiblities did dance on the tip of her tongue. She felt like the answers should be blonde and blue, respectively, but something in her mind said that would be wrong to say. Still, she couldn’t think of any other, and she didn’t know why.

“I... I...” she stammered, swallowing as she felt her mouth grow dry. “I don’t know.”

Dr. Sampors’ eyes narrowed on her. “Really? How interesting?” he said, licking his lips with a thoughtful and hungry look in his green eyes. “I wonder if that’s a side effect of shape-shifting for your people or something caused by the explosion of the Web. Hmmm... yes, interesting. Something we'll have to look more closely at. Yes.” He pushed the flat, rectangular object towards her as he picked up his silver pen and started to write in the notebook once again.

Gazing down at the flat, rectangular object, Jenny recognized it as the back of a mirror. It was strange that the mirror should be what her thoughts were lost on. She felt there were other things she should be more curious about. For example, what was Dr. Sampors off-handily saying and what he was putting into his notebook? She felt as if she should be plotting about how to escape. Still, she couldn’t take her eyes off the back of the mirror.  
  
Ever since, he’d introduced the uncomfortable uncertainty about her appearance, all she could think was to look at herself in a reflective surface. It was just to reassure her of what she looked like. She was tempted to pick up the mirror and look into it. Of course, Jenny knew, glancing briefly at Dr. Sampors, it was the reason he’d brought it to the table. As with his questions, the mirror was to guide her in the direction he wanted. As any scientist, he was testing his new lab rat. Jenny decided she didn't like to be pushed or guided in any direction.

“Feel free to look if you want,” Dr. Sampors said, not stopping in his writing or lifting his gaze, “And you can let her go, Thaen.” Muscles finally released her shoulders but his long shadow remained looming over her.

_I hate it when I’m right, but... I suppose it can’t hurt... can it?_

Tentatively, Jenny reached a hand out, pulling the mirror closer to her. She drew in a heavy breath, while continuing to stare at the back of mirror. Then in one quick move, she flipped it over, until she was staring down at her own reflection.

Jenny’s eyes widened as a tan-skinned girl stared back at her. The girl had long dark brown hair that smoothly flowed both along her face and down her back. It framed the curve of her oval-shaped face with the dark brown eyes, slender nose, and thick lips. Jenny ran her right pointer finger over the reflection, following the curve of the face. The reflection momentarily mesmerized her. Almost like a memory, she felt a burst of assurance that this was her; that it had always been her.

“Of course, it is me!” Jenny piped up, flashing a quick grin at Dr. Sampors. “This is what I’ve always looked like.”

Dr. Sampors shook his head, flipping through a few pages in his notebook. “No,” he said simply, pulling a photo from his notebook. He slid it face up towards Jenny. Without hestiation, she looked at it, seeing the slightly turned face of another girl. She looked younger than the girl in the reflection, with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, but a few loose strands framing her bright blue eyes.

Another flicker of a memory echoed in Jenny’s head. She was once more aboard the Web, but now inside a glass lift. There was a brief moment when she turned towards the reflective surface of the back of the lift. She noticed the relfection staring back at her was the same face as the girl in the photo.

“What?” Jenny said questioningly, snatching up the photo. She stared in amazement at it. “How?” Her gaze flickered between the photo and Dr. Sampors. "How?!"

“You see, Jenny,” Dr. Sampors said calmly, tapping the photo with the pointed end of his silver pen, “when you first arrived here, you looked like this.” He breathed, letting his gaze flicker over her. Then he tapped the mirror on the table. "And when you were found aboard the Web, you looked like that."  
  
"But... but..." Jenny stammered. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. "But how?"  
  
"That's what I'd like to know, Just Jenny," he said with a devious smirk. 

oOo

Time ticked by Jenny without notice. Even when the lights automatically dimmed for sleep, she still stared blankly at the mirror and the photo leaning on her pillow side by side. Two faces stared back at her. Both were familiar to her. She had memories of seeing both of their reflection in place of herself. If her memories were correct and Dr. Sampors wasn’t lying to her, they were both her.

_But how? How can I be both of them? I can't have two faces. It... It can’t be possible!_

Pushing herself up to a seated position on the bunk bed, she gazed at the darkened faces in the little bit of light emanating from the gap under her door. She picked up the photo, bringing it close to her face to see the finer details of the girl in the photo, clearly glancing behind herself. She looked so much younger than Jenny felt at the moment, but the same determination was in her eyes as Jenny felt.

_Is it because I shape-shifted that I can’t remember? Is Dr. Sampors right? Is it a consequence of changing? Are you the one with all my past memories? If so, I wish you could talk. I wish you could tell me who I am, where I come from, what happened to me... and who the man of brown is?_

Jenny sighed, glancing at the mirror again. She put the photo back down and picked up the mirror. Still, she could see now that this is how she appeared. There was no clear sign that she’d once looked like the girl in the photo. The two faces were distinctive from each other, making it so hard to believe. Then again, with all that had happened since she woke up in the laboratory, it wasn’t that unbelievable.

_Waking up with little to no memories... and strange visions of this man of brown. I even dreamed of running with him, while being hunted by wolves with guns. How much more ridiculous could it get! I wonder if this is how my life has always been. Strange and unpredictable. Sure feels like it._

Jenny tilted her head this way and that, noticing the finer details of her smooth, tan face in the mirror. Her eyebrows in the reflection were finer, and they sharply arched instead of curved as in the photo. She ran her right pointer finger alone her eyebrow, watching as the girl in the mirror did the same. Jenny let the girl continue, curving around to the edge of her face and then up into her hairline.

When her hand had made the trip upward, she noticed for a moment that her hand obscured half of her face. The girl in the mirror stopped her hand’s movement, and instead, purposively moved her hand over half her face. As soon as she did, Jenny saw a flicker of the girl in the photo's face appear in place of her hand. Whether real or in her mind, Jenny swore she saw herself with two faces.

“Hello,” she said to both girls, smiling at them

Both of the girls greeted her and smiled back.

Jenny chuckled and so did both of the girls.

“Come here often?” she said flirtatiously, and once again the girls mimicked her.

For the first time, since she’d awaken, Jenny had an overwhelming feeling to let loose a thunderous laugh, so she did. She laughed out loud, dropping the mirror to the bed without a care. She covered her face completely. “I’ve gone mad!” she sputtered through fits of giggles. “I’m talking to myself and my other self!”

Falling back into her bed, she continued laughing, not caring who heard her or if Muscles returned to give her beating for making so much noise.

_Nope, I don’t give a toss! I’m completely barmey! So why should I care? I don’t even care if the whole world ends right now. I don’t care if General Lars with a hundred of his Global Security boys arrives right now to shoot me dead. I don’t care if Dr. Sampors himself has completely changed his mind about dissecting me. I just don’t!_

That alone made it even funnier to her, so Jenny laughed harder. She was laughing so hard that her stomach started to ache. It felt like she might explode, and that thought made her laugh even harder. Tears streaked down her tanned cheeks and her face was growing red.

_What’s it to a girl who doesn’t exist.... a girl of two faces? I have plenty to go around! Maybe Dr. Sampors would like to have one of them. One to execute for sabotage and the other to experiment on!_

Even as the pleasant feeling of laughing started to turn to excoriating pain, Jenny felt something clawing past the madness threatening to envolope her mind. There like a small light gradually growing brighter by the second something from the deep recesses of her mind, from behind the dark veil hiding her memories emerged. It was a silencing but comforting voice:

“Jenny! Be strong now, you have to hold on. Do you hear me?”

Laughter instantly died on her lips. Her face fell to a gapping expression. She stared at the ceiling with moist eyes. She recognized the voice. It was the voice of the man of brown. He was calling out to her from her memories, from her past.

oOo

Jenny was lying in the man of brown's arms, gazing up at him. A great pain was spreading in her chest, and she could feel her hearts starting to slow. Still, he kept her close to his brown-coated chest. Gazing up at him through narrowed eyes filled with tears, she saw a blurry vision of his slender face with kind, dark brown eyes. He was speaking to her with such warmth and love.

“We have things to do, you and me. Hey!” he said, sounding scared.

There was great pain and anguish in his face, particularly evident in his forced smile. He appeared to be putting on a brave face for her, but it was hard to tell. She felt tired as if she had never slept before and was about to take a long nap.

Her eyelids drooped for a few seconds, and suddenly she felt him shake her and exclaim, “Hey!” As her eyes opened again, he was still speaking to her. “We can go anywhere... everywhere, you and me. You choose."

She heard herself gasp, “That sounds good.”

He cupped her face with his warm hand, keeping his gaze locked on her gaze as if that alone would keep her awake. “You’re my daughter... and we’ve only just got started...”

oOo

“Father...” she whispered sadly. “The man of brown... he’s my father.” New tears began to stream down Jenny’s cheeks. “Oh, what am I saying? What am I doing!? I can’t give up now. I can’t die!” She took in a shuddering breath. “He’s waiting... for me.”

With those words spoken, Jenny finally made up her mind. No matter what she looked like or what her real identity was, she had a father who was waiting for her. It was time to stop dwelling on the past, to stop worrying about her appearance. She had to start working on finding a way out of here, even if she had to rip this world apart to do so.

_To be continued..._


End file.
